Reserve Officer School

Reserve Officer School
The Colour of the School
Active	1920–1942: Reserviupseerikoulu 1942–1945: Upseerikoulu 1948– Reserviupseerikoulu
Country	Finland
Branch	Finnish Army
Type	Military school
Role	Reserve officer training
Size	200 conscripts, 250 career personnel, 700 students during courses
Part of	Army Academy
Garrison	Hamina
Nickname(s)	Rukki, Ruk
March	Heroes pugnate
Decorations	Order of the Cross of Liberty

Reserve Officer School (Finnish: Reserviupseerikoulu, RUK), located in Hamina, Finland, by the southeastern border, is the unit responsible for the training of the bulk of the Finnish reserve officers.

The school organises two yearly courses of some 700 men and women. The School is organized into a five companies of reserve officer students and three supporting companies. The Reserve Officer course is organised at five companies:

In addition to the five companies of the Reserve Officer Course, the School has three companies consisting of ordinary conscripts:

Organizationally, Reserve Officer School is a battalion-level unit which belongs to the Army Academy. The unit was founded in 1920 and has operated continually with a single break from 1945 to 1947 when the Finnish officer training was stopped by order of the Allied Control Commission. Since its founding, the school has been situated in Hamina, with the exception of wartime 1939–45, when the school was evacuated to Niinisalo in Kankaanpää. During the years 1942–45, the school operated under the name of Officer School (Finnish: Upseerikoulu). Since 1920, the School has trained over 174,000 reserve officers for the Finnish Defence Forces.

Within the Finnish Defence Forces, the vast majority of officers advance through the ranks during their conscription, instead of being commissioned from without for a separate career path.

At the end of the basic training of eight weeks, some conscripts are selected for extra training as reserve NCOs (Finnish: reservin aliupseeri). After the seven-week phase I of the NCO school, usually organised in the brigade the conscript is serving in, some NCO students are selected to become Reserve Officers, who are trained at the Reserve Officer School. Both the Reserve NCOs and Reserve Officers serve for 11.5 months, while the majority of rank-and-file conscripts serve for 5.5 months.

Reserve Officer School trains reserve officers, most of whom do not continue in active service but are demobilised to the reserve at the end of their conscription. Their service obligation as reservists continues until the age of 60. The reserve officers do not have a military standing while in reserve but when called to active service, reserve officers rank with career officers. The activation may take place for voluntary exercises, for obligatory refresher exercises or, in emergencies, for extraordinary service or for mobilisation. Based on their performance during service in the reserve, reserve officers may be promoted to higher ranks. The highest rank for which reserve officers are eligible is major (in Navy, lieutenant commander), and in extremely rare cases, lieutenant colonel (in the Navy, commander. All officer promotions are decided by the President of Finland, both for career and reserve officers.